Orchestral transposition-chart.



M. VERDIER. ORGHESTRAL TRANSPOS'ITION CHART. APPLICATION FILED'NOV.15,1910.

996,542. Patented June 27,1911.

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NXED STTES PATENT OFFICE.

MARY VERDIER, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

ORCHESTRAL TRANSPOSITION-CHART.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, MARY VERDIER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda` and State of California,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in OrchestralTransposition-Charts, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to orchestral transposition charts designed forthe purpose of aiding musicians and arrangers of music for bands andorchestras in determining the proper keys in which to write the partsfor the various instruments in order to assure unison and accords forall instruments comprising the band or orchestra.

Musicians are aware of the fact that the notes written for variousinstruments do not represent the same sounds. For instance: the C of aBb cornet is in unison with the Bb of the piano, organ, violin or anynon-transposing instrument; while the C of a Eb cornet is in unison withthe EbH of those instruments. Composers and arrangers of music havinglimited experience are well aware of the facts referred to, but arefrequently confused and are unable to decide in what keys to write thedifferent parts so that when produced the music will be in unison oraccord.

My invention is designed for the purpose of assisting persons of thecharacter referred to, to quickly determine the various keys in whichthe various parts are to be written or transposed in order to produceharmony and accord. These and other objects may be attained by means ofthe construction illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which,

Figure l is a plan view of a chart made in accordance with my invention.Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of the same.

Referring to the drawing the numeral l designates the base tablet whichmay be made of card board or other suitable material. This tablet isprovided with a series of transverse lines 2 suitably spaced apart andat the right hand side of the tablet vertical dividing lines 3 areprinted or otherwise produced upon said tablet. In the spaces formed bythe lines 2 and 3 are the notes 4L of the chromatic scale. The tablet 1is provided with a slot 5 which extends nearly from end to end of saidtablet. Mounted to slide'on the tablet is an indicator 6, said indicatorbeing formed, pref- Specication of Letters Patent. Patented June 27,1911. Application filed November 15, 1910.

Serial No. 592,550.

erably of card board or similar material and provided with headedbuttons 7, which eX- tend through the slot 5 and permit the indicator toslide in said slot. The indicator 6 is of less width than the tablet land is provided wit-h horizontal lines 8 spaced apart the same distanceas the lines 2. At the right hand side of the indicator 6 Vertical lines9 are provided. Between the lines 8 are printed the names of variousinstruments, as shown at l0, and in the spaces formed by the lines 8 and9 are the notes 1l indicating the keys of the instruments referred to inthe spaces l0.

rlhe operation of my invention may be briefly described as follows: Byraising or lowering the indicator which bears the names of the variousinstruments the device is made to indicate automatically in successionthe proper written expression of all the unisons for all of theinstruments in common use in bands and orchestras, together with thereal tone, as given by the piano, organ, violin, etc. To illustrate:should a person wish to determine in which key a piano part should beWritten to accompany a solo for the Bb cornet in which t-he solo iswritten in the key of Gr, adjust the indicator by bringing the linerelating to Bb7 cornets opposite the letter G, as shown in Fig. l, andthe line bearing the name Piano will point to the name of the key inwhich the piano part should be written. Furthermore, should a persondesire to ascertain in what key to write the part for any instruments toform unisons or accords with parts already written, place the name ofany instrument for which the part is already written opposite the nameof the key in which the part is written and the name of the instrumentfor which the part is to be written, will point to the proper key inwhich the part is to be written.

From the foregoing it will be obvious that a transposition chart made inaccordance with my invention is of simple construction, can be quicklyadjusted to indicate the keys in which compositions are to be written orarranged; said device being easily constructed at a low cost and willprove of great value to musicians and others desiring to arrange musicparts for various instruments.

I claim:

An orchestral transposition chart comprising a tablet provided with avertical slot therein, said tablet having` a series of horizontalequally-spaced lines upon one Side of said Slot, and Vertical columnscrossing Said horizontal lines at one side of said tablet, Said Verticalcolumns having characters representing a chromatic scale between thehorizontal lines, a. sliding indicator Connected to the tablet by headedbuttons eX- tending through said slot, said indicator having thereon inhorizontal lines equallyspaced and corresponding to the horizontal lineson the tablet the naines of the various instruments, and in a verticalcolumn in line With said names the natural keys of said instrument-s.

ln testimony whereof I atlix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

MARY VERDIER.

lVitnesses:

ALBERT BODE, JACK BEMACHER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, `QIashington, D. G.

